AgMission and PepsiCo Award Three Grants to Bolster Climate-Resilient Farms and Value Chains
17 Junio 2024 - 10:00AM
AgMission™, a global initiative co-founded by the Foundation
for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and the World
Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) to unlock agriculture’s potential
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has partnered with PepsiCo to
award three grants to researchers in Australia, Mexico and Canada
for a total combined $6.7 million investment to support
evidence-based research on the effectiveness of climate-smart
agriculture practices that incorporate regenerative agriculture
principles.
Climate-smart practices can help reduce carbon emissions and
provide environmental benefits associated with regenerative
agriculture; however, limited data exists on how to effectively
incorporate these practices on farms. AgMission and PepsiCo first
issued a call for research proposals in early 2023 focused on
research and implementation projects that develop, study and expand
the climate-smart agriculture transition in specific crop sourcing
regions.
“To create a resilient food system, it’s critical to invest in
innovative research that is relevant to the challenges farmers
face, to support them in adapting to climate change and other
stressors,” said FFAR Scientific Program Director, Allison Thomson.
“We are thrilled to partner with PepsiCo to fund research that has
the potential to provide valuable data and information that farmers
need to enhance their operations. This research has the potential
to generate scalable solutions that can be applied to farms
globally.”
All three grantees awarded through this effort will work closely
with farmers and farmer organizations to co-develop transition
plans to introduce regenerative practices, improve understanding of
the impacts and outcomes, and contribute to scientific evidence
that can help overcome widespread adoption challenges. By
uncovering best practices for implementation and data reinforcing
the environmental benefits of regenerative farming, this new
research aims to create more productive, climate-resilient
farms.
“Creating a more resilient, sustainable agricultural system
helps to protect our continued business growth from disruption due
to climate change, and other potential environmental and social
risks,” said Margaret Henry, vice president, Sustainable and
Regenerative Agriculture at PepsiCo. “We believe that regenerative
agriculture will be pivotal in feeding the growing global
population, while also addressing the need to protect and enhance
our natural resources. To accelerate adoption of these practices,
we’re proud to support these new projects in an effort to uncover
impactful and scalable solutions to better enable climate-smart
agriculture practices.”
The three projects being funded by AgMission and PepsiCo
include:
- A $748,394 grant to
Charles Sturt University to examine climate-smart agriculture
practices in cropping and enhance the climate resilience of local
Australian grain producers. PepsiCo provided matching funds that
were also supplemented by Charles Sturt University’s Cool Soil
Initiative for a $3,783,598 total investment. This research builds
on the Cool Soil Initiative, a partnership that has built and
implemented a scientifically credible framework to support farmers
in practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil
health. Charles Sturt University researchers will leverage the
extensive learnings and insights from the Cool Soil Initiative’s
five years’ worth of on-ground support and greenhouse gas reporting
across wheat, canola and corn farms on the east coast of Australia,
while establishing a new farmer cohort for oats in Western
Australia. Researchers are evaluating more than 300 Australian
farms to understand how different agricultural practices and
geographic locations influence soil health to understand current
climate-smart agriculture innovation for each major Australian
cropping system.
- A $750,000 grant to
the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to
accelerate the adoption of regenerative climate-smart agricultural
practices in wheat and maize in Mexico. PepsiCo provided matching
funds for a $1,500,000 total investment. This research is assessing
climate stressors for wheat and maize growers in Bajío region, the
breadbasket of Mexico, under current and future climate,
co-designing, co-creating and co-implementing adaptive practices
with farmers to address the climate challenges effectively,
understanding drivers and barriers for adoption of those practices,
developing targeted agro-advisory tools for climate adaptation and
quantifying the benefits of regenerative agriculture. Using a
data-based approach, CIMMYT researchers will use field measurements
and modeling to estimate current and potential greenhouse gas
emission reductions from climate-smart agriculture adoption in the
Bajío region of Mexico.
- A $749,346 grant to
South East Research Farm to develop innovative cover crop
strategies that can drive climate-smart agriculture adoption in
Canada’s eastern Prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
PepsiCo provided matching funds for a $1,498,693 total investment.
South East Research Farm is collaborating with University of
Manitoba researchers to collect farm-level data that will be used
in environmental models to evaluate the suitability of
climate-smart agriculture practices and their impact on crop yield,
grain quality, soil health and environmental services. In
collaboration with producers, South East Research Farm will
translate these research findings to support farmer adoption of
climate-smart agriculture practices across Manitoba and
Saskatchewan.
“Farmers are not only food producers but also stewards of
natural resources (soils, water, biodiversity, seeds) while
actively managing and preserving the landscape. Research and
innovation in agriculture can only succeed when they meet farmers’
needs and expectations,” according to WFO Secretary General Andrea
Porro. “When the research approach involves farmers and their
active participation, it can lead to easier adoption and increase
the effectiveness of climate-smart agriculture practices within the
farmers' community. The AgMission and PepsiCo award recognizes the
importance of basing research on farmers' needs and knowledge for
achieving sustainable and resilient food systems through
innovation.”
Colleen Daniel
Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research
574.386.0658
cdaniel@foundationfar.org